


The Little General

by Opalsong



Category: Tales of Xillia
Genre: Gen, Growing Up, Idolization, M/M, Pre-Game(s), Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-12
Updated: 2013-12-12
Packaged: 2018-01-04 10:23:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1079854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalsong/pseuds/Opalsong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before he was Wingul, Lin Long Dau raised himself between the pages of tomes dedicated to the tactics of Ilbert the Conductor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Little General

**Author's Note:**

  * For [oryx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/oryx/gifts).



The battle raged for days but the commander kept his cool.  He ordered his troops left and right from a hill overlooking the battle.  Long hair flowing in the wind, he looked magnificent and strong; ready to destroy the enemy with the thrust of his sword –

“Master Lin, attention on me.”  Lin looked up from his book and found his instructor looking unimpressed.  Lin was unimpressed.  He was just getting to the part where the author described the tactics used in the battle.  That was the interesting part, the part that he wanted to read in the first place.  It was much more useful than basic counting, or whatever idiot thing, his stupid instructor was trying to teach him today.  The man couldn’t even tell the difference between a rose formation and a diamond formation.  Lin knew that and he was only five.

“Master Lin, your father has made it very clear that you are to concentrate on your studies and not on your picture books.”  The man continued.  That was the stupidest thing Lin had heard the man say, and this particular instructor said many stupid things.  Lin’s books were not picture books, they were treaties on great battles and the tactics and people involved.  Most of them did have pictures; maps, illustrations of the famous leaders, and the like.  Lin had found this particular book two weeks ago and it was already one of his favourites.  It described the battle where one commander and a pittance of troops destroyed three opposing armies in one fell swoop.  The tactics used were the most brilliant Lin had ever read about.  The commander himself rising high above all other tacticians in Lin’s mind.  Lin had one last look at the graceful stance and commanding face of Ilbert the Conductor before his instructor snatched the book away and marched him off to see his father.

Lin Long Dau was a genius.  He was reading and writing the complicated language of Long Dau before his peers had even figured out how to hold a calligraphy brush.  He had begun his study of tactics before he was tall enough to see onto the map table.  He was destined for greatness.  However, being a genius had its faults; he had no friends - there were no children his own age that could keep up with him. Also, he was the heir to the Long Dau clan which made him even more unapproachable.  Even older children or adults were unwilling to befriend him because he was still a child.  As he grew, this was less and less of a problem.  Lin never wanted friends; he wanted peers, intellectual equivalents, and as he grew up his elders were more likely to give him the attention he wanted, though they all refused to allow him to meet his idol, Ilbert the Conductor.  Lin’s idyllic childhood came to an end at twelve years of age.  That summer his father was killed by Gaius. 

Lin was in his study, scrolls and maps spread about him when a messenger burst into the room.

“Master Lin-” the man huffed out great breaths of air as he tried to catch his breath and repeat the message at the same time.

“I thought everyone in this house knew not to bother me when I am studying,” Lin bit out.  He already had to spend enough time away from his books and the absorbing tactics of the Conductor for family duties, he did not need interruptions during the few moments he set aside for himself.

“There is word from the front lines.”

“Has my father sent for me then?” Lin interrupted.  He tried to give his father advice but the battles were too far away and the roads too unreliable to get word back and forth quickly enough to be of use.  He currently led a quiet campaign to convince his father to allow him to attend him at the site of the battles.  His father remained steadfast, but with time Lin was sure he would prevail.

“I am sorry young Master.  But your father- the Lord-” the man appeared to have trouble getting the words out.

“What has happened?” Lin asked. “Did he lose another battalion?  One more and we will need to begin-” Lin trailed off at the look on the man’s face.

“The unit your father was with has fallen.  It was taken by the rebel Gaius.” Lin felt himself go cold.  His mind began to race

“I will need a horse and guard.  I will head out immediately.  Where are the troops currently stationed?

“Master Lin, your uncle has not sent for you.  He wishes for you to join the academy next week and to focus on your studies rather than the ongoing skirmish with the rebels.”  Lin nearly exploded.  The man had looked apologetic as he said it, at least.  But that was a cold comfort; obviously, his uncles had decided that Lin was too young to lead and had declared a regency.  This was fairly standard for heirs under the age of fifteen or sixteen; but Lin was no normal heir.  He knew his uncles would waste even more troops, loose even more battles, in the coming months and that they were likely to botch the entire effort.

“Leave me” Lin said, turning back to his books.  If he was only going to have one more week with the Long Dau library, he was going to make the most of it and as that his uncles had cut him off from family affairs, he would spend that week immersed in the life and battles of Ilbert the Conductor.

In the following years the Conductor felt like Lin’s only constant companion amidst the isolation of the Academy and the hatred that burned in his heart for Gaius.  Lin read and re-read the few books on the man he had managed to bring to the Academy until he could recite them from memory.  Within the company of his “peers,” only Ilbert could challenge Lin’s intellect and passion for battle.  Lin was constantly discovering new nuances to the battles that Ilbert had orchestrated.  Only Ilbert could sooth the burning in his soul when he thought of the rebel Gaius.

A year or so after the death of his father at the hands of Gaius, Lin awoke in the night to find his sheets sticky and his mind full of the majestic nose and billowing hair of Ilbert the Conductor.  He received a lecture the following day on the workings of his body and how girls would begin to tempt him.  They never did.  There were girls who made themselves known to the boys at the Academy, hoping for a wealthy husband.  They tried to catch Lin’s eye the most but none could compare to the strong lines and sharp mind of Ilbert.  None could distract him from the hatred in his heart the way the Conductor was able to.

Amidst his growth there were assassins.  Not one of which was sent by Gaius, which was intriguing.  None ever carried out their mission of course; Lin was an expert at arms as well as strategy.  He sent their hands back to his uncles as signs of his contempt; his uncles, who were slowly becoming less in number.  Lin did not even need to send assassins after them; they were killing themselves through terrible planning and reckless force.  That was the one thing he could thank Gaius for: as he won more battles and swayed or conquered more clans to his side, he also was slowly killing his way through Lin’s uncles – the men keeping him from the battlefields.

Then finally the day came when Gaius’s troops killed the last of Lin’s uncles and he was free to join the war.  With that the tides had turned.  Lin went to bed in his tent every night smiling and woke each morning from dreams where he and Ilbert played at the war table.  The Long Dau force began to claim victory after victory.  The men began proclaiming him to be: “the little General.”  Lin was proud to have a title like Ilbert the Conductor, even if it was one that emphasised his youth.  Lin’s forces caused retreat after retreat and then had the rebel group that Gaius commanded trapped in the Mon Highlands. Then came the fateful night that changed the course of Lin’s world.

Lin was asleep in his tent, dreaming of Gaius in chains as he stood over him.  Ilbert was at his back, hands wandering, whispering in his ear how to break the man before them.

“Little General, sir!” A gust of wind blew the door to his tent wide open and from his bed he could see one of his lieutenants saluting.

“Yes?” Had Gaius finally shown his dastardly hand and attacked them while they slept?  Had the men on the ridge reported that an avalanche was soon to be upon them?

“Commander Gaius wishes to meet with you.  He says it is urgent and asks for your ear.  He is waiting on the battlefield with only his female bodyguard, the cat woman,” the man said.  Lin found himself stunned.  How could the other man ask this of him.  It was the middle of the night, there was no need to meet now.

“Send men up to the ridge.  If he is choosing the place of our meeting I wish to be sure that there are no assassins,” he commanded.  The lieutenant saluted and strode away.  Those men were not only assurance again Gaius’s assassins but would work as assassins of his own, providing Gaius was not extremely convincing.

Gaius was extremely convincing.  He had an artes user that was incredibly attuned to the earth in the Highlands, Lin had heard of her prowess and knew she was as good as Gaius said.  She warned of an avalanche within the week and Gaius had proposed a mutual retreat.  It had required a lot of control on Lin’s part to not just shove his sword in to the man that killed his father or order his death via the archers stationed in the hills, but Lin’s cool head had prevailed and he agreed.  Both forces retreated and not a day to soon. 

Lin still wondered, as he looked over the rocky terrain that used to be their battlefield, whether it was truly respect that caused Gaius to talk to him.  Gaius could have ordered his own retreat and drawn the Long Dau troops further into danger and then waited until they were crushed by nature, that is what Lin would have done.  He did not, though, and that made Lin wonder if he was truly as horrible as Lin had always assumed.  Lin wished he could ask Ilbert for his opinion.  Instead, he turned his horse away from the devastation and back to his troops.  Gaius’s tactics still needed work, he would not win against Lin and he could not have won against the Conductor.


End file.
